Japan Society of Fairfield County
Movie: The Sirota Family and the 20th Century

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at the Greenwich Japanese School

The Sirota Family and the 20th Century Directed
by Tomoko Fujiwara.
This documentary film follows the
extraordinary story of the Sirotas, a Jewish family originally from
Ukraine, that was displaced to Vienna, Tokyo, Warsaw, Paris and the
United States. This family's life was roiled by the horrors of the
20th century. The film also pays tribute to the life of Beate Sirota
Gordon, the daughter of internationally renowned pianist Leo Sirota,
who lived in Japan for two decades starting in 1929. Beate was able
to rejoin her parents in Japan after the war by becoming a member of
the team that worked under Douglas MacArthur on the postwar
Constitution of Japan. An outspoken defender of Article 9, the
war-renouncing clause of the Japanese Constitution, Gordon drafted
the women's rights clause in the postwar Japanese Constitution,
still considered a landmark document. Beate's contribution to
Japanese women's equality has made her an American icon in
Japan.
A discussion of the film followed its
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